Tuesday morning was a great time to be on the water on the Kohala Coast! We took out two boats for our Wake Up with the Whales Cruise from Anaeho’omalu Bay, and though we went different directions, guests on both cruises got to see a wide variety of surface behaviors from Humpbacks of all ages. On the Manu Iwa, we saw 25 different Humpbacks, including one Cow/Calf/Escort pod with a very active little calf. This guy did several tail lobs (which are really cute when you see a calf do them). We also got to see some whales that appeared to be as long as our boat (50′) — including one who surfaced about 25 yards from our idling boat, and then came up to get an even closer look. On Seasmoke, we also saw more than 20 different Humpbacks within 3/4 of a mile. We spent a considerable amount of time at idle, watching a Mom/Baby/Escort. We knew baby was pretty young because he still had a bent over dorsal fin. Mom looked to be pretty young herself (she was only about 35 feet long). Our second Mom/Baby/Escort pod came across us a little later in the cruise. Baby breached 5 times very close by (he kept trying to get closer), and we all got a great view of his ventral pleats (the “lines” we see on his belly). We also had several close encounters with solo whales who surfaced very close by at different times throughout the cruise.

Mahalo,

Claire

Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: We’ve never witnessed a Humpback taking care of two calves. We know she could conceive twins (and whalers occasionally would find twin fetuses) but we doubt she could carry twins to term. And even if she could, we really doubt she could produce the 200 gallons of milk she’d need each day to feed two calves!